Women's Resource Centre's journey into social media

Women’s Resource Centre Our journey into social media

First steps…

First steps…
CharityComms
www.charitycomms.org.uk
Rachel Beer
www.hellobeautifulworld.com
Her presentation
http://bit.ly/11Jz8b

http://www. facebook .com/group. php ? gid=2451312346

Listening & learning
Set up personal profile on Twitter ( http://twitter. com/leahmouse )
Joined some online communities
Experiment ‘in private’ without (much) risk to WRC
Listen & find out how other people use it (etiquette & good ideas)
make peer contacts (other people working in charity communications and using social media)

Why? (Strategic fit)
WRC’s strategic goals 2009-2013
Promoting solidarity in a competitive world
Advocating for the women’s sector
Building the capacity of the women’s sector
Demonstrating leadership with grassroots integrity
Improving WRC’s national reach
Achieving financial independence and stability for WRC

Why? (other benefits)
Communicate with members, supporters and peers in a more responsive way (engagement).
Establish our brand and reputation, by extending them into new platforms.
Extra tools to make all our work more effective, e.g. conferences, capacitybuilding, research, campaigning.

How? (internal buy-in)
Permission from Chief Executive
Embedding into whole organisation
One page: why should we?
Cross-team working group
Talk about it all the time
Present it as solution to what colleagues are trying to achieve

So… what did we do next?

Twitter
twitter.com/whywomen
raising profile
reaching new audiences
encouraging debate and support around issues
networking women’s organisations and supporters

Facebook
facebook.com/ whywomen
campaigning
sharing news
engagement, questions, discussions
connecting women’s orgs on Facebook

Flickr
flickr.com/whywomen
pictures from events, training, fundraising etc
visual representation of our work and the women we work with
Good place to find images for newsletters etc

WRC blog
Quick news
Event reports
Diary
Comments

The Women’s Cafe
Online community) for the women’s voluntary and community sector http: //thewomenscafe . ning .com
Uses (free, easy) Ning platform
Main aims:
Networking women’s organisations
Peer support and advice
Demonstrate what can be done
Like NAVCA’s navcaboodle www. navcaboodle .org. uk
Buy-in from key organisations across the sector

The Women’s Cafe

Outcomes
Numbers: 270 Facebook fans, connecting 28 women’s orgs (via Favourite Pages), 620 FB group members. 1750+ Twitter followers, following 50+ women’s orgs on Twitter, Twitter = 3rd biggest referrer to WRC website (FB=6th). 300 members of the Women’s Café.
Benefits to WRC: raise profile, achieve aims, reach out to new audience and supporters, richer engagement with members, information gathering, new staff skills
Benefits to the women’s sector: raise profile with each other and new audiences, connect with each other for peer support, learn about new (free) tools

Making it happen…

What do we need to achieve as an organisation/team? What problem are we trying to solve? Who do we need to engage with to achieve our aims? What are their characteristics? What media do/could they use? How can we reach them? What do they need? How do I make it happen? Internal buy-in. Training (learn how to use socmed tools). Budget, time, resources. Setting targets, creating benchmarks, know what you have to prove to whom. Have you achieved your aims - or more? Make improvements.

What can you do tomorrow?
Investigate different social media platforms as an individual (join Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, navcaboodle etc)
Set up organisational profiles on some of these (basic info, point to your main website, claim your spot so unauthorised people don’t)
Start internal conversations

Other issues
time, resources
policies
who is responsible?
getting internal buy-in
maintaining it
who has permission to speak, post etc?
openness, transparency, making mistakes
organisational identity and voice
how useful is it really?

Thanks and other help
Leah Williams (twitter.com/leahmouse)
[email_address]
Rachel Beer (twitter.com/rachelbeer)
NFP Tweetup www. nfptweetup .org. uk
Navcaboodle www. navcaboodle .org. uk
Paul Webster (NAVCA) www.twitter. com/watfordgap
http: //watfordgap . wordpress .com
Sophie Ballinger (NAVCA) www.twitter. com/sospot

Women's Resource Centre's journey into social media

by Leah Williams on Jan 17, 2010

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Women’s Resource Centre’s journey into social media — Presentation Transcript